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High-rise site: what's the protocol if the service elevator is out?

Hector V.asked 0 viewsConstruction & Job SitesHigh rise unitService visitOsha 1926 51Missed serviceTruck access

We're five months into a 20-story high-rise build in downtown Phoenix. I have a standard-unit and an ADA-compliant on every third floor, serviced weekly. The rental company's vacuum truck parks in the alley, and they use the construction elevator to reach each unit. The elevator went down for maintenance yesterday, and it's scheduled for two days. I can't get the units serviced. With 150 guys on site in this heat, things get rough fast. OSHA 1926.51 says we have to provide sanitation, and a missed service puts us out of compliance. What's the standard protocol here? Do rental companies have a backup plan for elevator outages, or am I expected to move these units down the stairs?

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Brad L.Kansas City, MO

Call the rental company today and get extra ground level units dropped for the two days. Nobody should be hauling a full unit down a stairwell. A unit with a loaded tank sloshes, it's a back injury waiting to happen, and if it tips on a landing you've got a spill in an enclosed shaft.

We had the same thing on a 14-story frame job when the hoist went down for three days. What worked for us:

  1. Two extra standard units plus a hand wash station at the base of the tower by the gate, dropped the same day we called.
  2. The super padlocked the upper floor units once they got close to full so nobody overloaded them.
  3. Foremen gave each crew a set time to come down, so the line at the bottom didn't stack up all at once.
  4. When the hoist came back, the route driver serviced every floor first thing that morning.

If your units are the high-rise style with lifting points, ask the rental company about flying the full ones down on the tower crane after hours. That's their call and your crane crew's call, not something to improvise.

Keep an ADA unit at ground level too. And get the outage and the backup plan in writing from the rental company so your OSHA 1926.51 file shows sanitation stayed available the whole time.

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